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Groq vs Lepton AI: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence

Full comparison of Groq and Lepton AI — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Updated July 2026.

Groq

LPU-powered inference — the fastest tokens per second available

Groq runs custom Language Processing Units (LPUs) that deliver dramatically higher throughput than GPU-based inference — Llama 3.3 70B reaches 750+ tokens/second on Groq, versus 100–200 on typical GPU providers. Ideal for latency-sensitive applications, real-time chat, and high-volume batch workloads.

SpeedReal-time chatVoice AICost-efficiencyBatch processing
Open-weight hostHosts open weights

Lepton AI

Serverless LLM inference with a developer-first API

Lepton AI offers serverless inference for popular open-weight models with a clean developer experience. Their platform supports Llama 3.3 and other leading open-source models with competitive per-token pricing and low-latency endpoints. A good choice for developers who want simple, scalable inference without infrastructure management.

Developer toolsServerlessOpen-sourcePrototypingCost-efficiency
Open-weight hostHosts open weights

Key metrics

Groq
Lepton AI
Cheapest input ($/1M)

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Cheapest output ($/1M)

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Peak throughput

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Best latency (TTFT)

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Intelligence score

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Context window

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Live token pricing

Strengths & weaknesses

Groq

750+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.3 70B — fastest GPU-class inference
Sub-100ms time-to-first-token for real-time applications
Very competitive pricing on open-weight models
OpenAI-compatible API
Free tier available
Limited model selection vs. Together AI or Fireworks
No vision model support on most models
No fine-tuning capability

Lepton AI

Clean developer experience with minimal setup
Serverless — no infrastructure management
Competitive pricing on Llama 3.3 models
OpenAI-compatible API
Auto-scaling handles traffic spikes
Smaller model catalog than Together AI or Fireworks
Less established than larger inference providers
No fine-tuning support

Key differentiators

Groq

Groq's custom LPU chips deliver 750+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.3 70B — 4–5× faster than any GPU-based provider.

Lepton AI

The simplest serverless inference API for open-weight models — minimal setup, auto-scaling, and a clean developer experience.

Frequently asked questions

Groq FAQs

How fast is Groq inference?

Groq delivers 750+ tokens/second on Llama 3.3 70B and 1,200+ tokens/second on Llama 3.1 8B. This is 4–5× faster than typical GPU-based providers, making it ideal for real-time applications.

How much does Groq cost?

Llama 3.3 70B costs $0.59/1M input and $0.79/1M output tokens. Llama 3.1 8B is just $0.05/$0.08 per 1M tokens — among the cheapest options for a capable open-weight model.

What is a Groq LPU?

A Language Processing Unit (LPU) is Groq's custom silicon designed specifically for sequential token generation. Unlike GPUs which are optimised for parallel matrix operations, LPUs excel at the autoregressive decoding step that dominates LLM inference latency.

Lepton AI FAQs

What models does Lepton AI support?

Lepton AI hosts Llama 3.3 70B and other popular open-weight models. Their catalog is focused on the most widely-used models rather than breadth.

How does Lepton AI pricing compare to competitors?

Lepton AI offers competitive pricing on Llama 3.3 70B, comparable to Together AI and Fireworks AI. Check their pricing page for current rates.

Is Lepton AI good for production workloads?

Lepton AI is suitable for production workloads with auto-scaling and serverless infrastructure. For very high-volume or latency-critical production use cases, Groq or Cerebras may offer better performance.

Provider resources

Groq

Provider pageWebsitePricingDocs

Lepton AI

Provider pageWebsitePricingDocs

Groq — LPU-powered inference — the fastest tokens per second available

Groq runs custom Language Processing Units (LPUs) that deliver dramatically higher throughput than GPU-based inference — Llama 3.3 70B reaches 750+ tokens/second on Groq, versus 100–200 on typical GPU providers. Ideal for latency-sensitive applications, real-time chat, and high-volume batch workloads.

Groq's custom LPU chips deliver 750+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.3 70B — 4–5× faster than any GPU-based provider.

Lepton AI — Serverless LLM inference with a developer-first API

Lepton AI offers serverless inference for popular open-weight models with a clean developer experience. Their platform supports Llama 3.3 and other leading open-source models with competitive per-token pricing and low-latency endpoints. A good choice for developers who want simple, scalable inference without infrastructure management.

The simplest serverless inference API for open-weight models — minimal setup, auto-scaling, and a clean developer experience.

Key strengths compared

Groq

  • ▸750+ tokens/sec on Llama 3.3 70B — fastest GPU-class inference
  • ▸Sub-100ms time-to-first-token for real-time applications
  • ▸Very competitive pricing on open-weight models

Lepton AI

  • ▸Clean developer experience with minimal setup
  • ▸Serverless — no infrastructure management
  • ▸Competitive pricing on Llama 3.3 models

Provider category context

Groq is a inference api, founded in 2016. Lepton AI is a inference api, founded in 2023. Both are inference api providers — the comparison is primarily about pricing, model selection, and feature differentiation within the same tier.

How to choose between them

Both Groq and Lepton AI host open-weight models. The key differentiators are latency, throughput, and which specific model versions each provider offers. Check the speed metrics above — inference API providers often differ significantly on tokens-per-second for the same model. Pricing is typically competitive between them; availability of specific model versions (e.g., Llama 3.1 405B, DeepSeek V3) may be the deciding factor.